No review of ion channel screening over the past decade can avoid discussing the pivotal role played by automated electrophysiology
8 Years of Surveying Ion Channel Screening – has anything changed?
Many advances have been made in ion channel screening over the past decade. From a technology perspective perhaps the greatest of these was the emergence of the planar patch used in automated patch clamping (APC) devices which has opened up the possibility of higher throughput direct electrophysiological assay of ion channel activity.
However, the deployment of APC in screening was initially met with some skepticism by electrophysiology purists in the industry1. APC has evolved considerably in recent years with a diversity of new third generation systems now addressing both voltage and ligandgated channels at much higher throughputs and at higher seal resistances. In addition, the use of population patch clamp and multi-hole approaches has largely mitigated initial concerns over data consistency and patch success rates. Many of the newer APC systems utilise cutting edge.........
